A History of Sevier County

Troubled times-Sevier county,1930-1949

TROUBLED TIMES: SEVIER COUNTY, 1930-1949 I n December 1930 the Richfield Reaper reported the results of the 1930 U.S. Census for the county. The population of the state of Utah numbered 507,847, an increase of 58,451 (13 percent) from 1920; however, Sevier County's 1930 population stood at 11,199, a decrease of 0.7 percent from the 1920 enumeration. This most recent figure represented a population density of 5.1 persons per square mile for the county.1 The county seat of Richfield had 3,067 persons, down from 3,262 in 1920. Of the other incorporated cities in the county, Salina was the second most populous, with a count of 1,383 (down from 1,451 in 1920); Monroe ranked third at 1,247 residents (from 1,719 in 1920). The farming communities of Elsinore, with 654 residents (a decline of 189 people from 1920); Redmond, 577 people (649 in 1920); Aurora, 568 inhabitants (no figure for 1920); Glenwood, 350 people (a decrease of fourteen persons); Koosharem, 319 residents (no fig­ure for 1920); Joseph, 243 inhabitants (224 in 1920); and Annabella, 180 people (no figure for 1920).2 Of all Sevier County's communities, only Joseph showed a population increase (nineteen persons) from 169 170 HISTORY OF SEVIER COUNTY 1920 to 1930. It would seem that the farm crisis of the 1920s with its falling agricultural prices and resulting farm sales was starting to scat­ter the county's population to more promising lands. This out-migration from the countryside during the 1920s and 1930s was not unique to Sevier County or to Utah. In the decade between 1930 and 1940 over 90,000 residents of Utah relocated; some, but of course not all, were farmers. Most Utahns moved to California or adjoining western states. The Great Depression has­tened the exodus from country to city. However, as historian Charles S. Peterson has noted, referring to John Steinbeck's novel about the midwestern dust bowl of the 1920s and 1930s, "the Utah experience was not The Grapes of Wrath." It was far from a rout, being more of an "orderly withdrawal."3 The fourth decade of the twentieth century for Sevier County began almost the way the third one had ended. The overriding issues of water rights, modernity, and the rapidly developing Great Depression still dominated the thoughts of the local people. The big story of the early 1930s was, without a doubt, the ever-worsening economy. The tax issue was crucially involved in the problems which wreaked havoc upon American farmers during the Great Depression. An indication of the hard times the Depression brought to Sevier County can be found in the county tax sales conducted between 1929 and 1934.4 Tax sales, brought about when a property owner was unable to meet his or her taxes, was the dread of the farmer during the Great Depression. Farmers, by the very nature of their profession, are forced to exist on anticipated income from future produce and/or livestock sales. However, when they suffer from a greatly reduced income from that anticipated, many farmers simply cannot make ends meet. Judging from the property tax records for Sevier County in 1929, the property tax ranged between $7.00 and $140.00 for a farmer in the county, depending upon the amount of acreage owned. Often a "compromise settlement" between the treasurer's office and the farmer averted a tax sale; at other times, delinquent properties were "redeemed" by friends or relatives. Sometimes, for a variety of rea­sons, the taxes were "cancelled." But, sadly for some, the treasurer's ledger regularly had the words "PROPERTY SOLD FOR TAXES BY TROUBLED TIMES: SEVIER COUNTY, 1930-1949 171 THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS" stamped in big red letters across the property tax entry.5 Fourteen Sevier County farms were sold on account of unpaid taxes in 1929. This number increased to twenty-four farms by the fol­lowing year. The numbers declined slightly in 1931 and 1932; but 1933 was a disaster for Sevier County farmers-that year alone 103 farms were sold for taxes. By 1934, when the farm policies of the new president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, were beginning to have some effect, farm tax sales in Sevier County declined to only thirty-five.6 Not all of Sevier County's farmers suffered equally d u r i n g the Great Depression, however. Walter B. Daniels was doing well enough that at one point in the period he actually bought eighty acres of pasture land for $800 at a tax sale.7 Most county residents, however, suffered in those bleak days. The following advertisements by the Salt Lake City office of the Federal Land Bank of Berkeley, California, appeared in the Reaper in 1930: FOR SALE Ninety acres irrigated land at loseph, Sevier County, Utah. Property has home, electric lights, city water. $8500.00. Small cash payment necessary and balance can be carried for 20 years at 6%. Thirty acres irrigated land full water right, located between Elsinore and Monroe on the main highway. Farm now growing alfalfa and grain crops. Price $3,000.00. 10% down and balance in 20 equal annual installments with interest at 6% per annum.8 These sale offerings by the land bank were followed by many others and illustrate the severity of t h e Great Depression u p o n the rural economy of the county. The above advertisements offer a glimpse of the engaging attributes of farm property in Sevier County-irrigated land with full water rights, a house on the site, electricity, city water, and good location. However, on many Sevier County farms life was bleak. While the post-World War I depression hit t h e farmlands somewhat later t h a n it struck manufacturing and mining, the blow has been called "sharper and more lasting."9 Farmers commonly took a mortgage on their property to produce the necessary cash to carry them until harvest time. As the Depression deepened and agricultural 172 HISTORY OF SEVIER COUNTY prices fell, individual farmers became increasingly hard-pressed financially. The signs of farm unrest were everywhere in Sevier County. The Depression brought what has been called a "hurricane of catastro­phe." 10 This was certainly true in Sevier County. On 2 October 1930 an opinion on a proposed state income-tax amendment was voiced in the pages of Richfield's newspaper by Charles L. Bean, the son of Sevier County explorer and pioneer George W. Bean. The younger Bean, exhibiting more t h a n a trace of farm-city rivalry, caustically wrote: The farmers have quite a different [tax] proposition. They know that these amendments will necessarily mean more money must be collected to take care of extra expenses. . . . The question is, who is going to pay the extra money? . . . It is suggested that $1000 be allowed a single man and $2000 to a married man, with a further exemption of three or four hundred dollars for each child before any income tax is collected, which will practically eliminate all salaried people [from paying income taxes]. But how about the farmer? If he happens to own a few acres of ground and maybe a cow or two, does he get any exemptions? Not on your life!" The incensed Bean railed on about the farmer's plight, "They soak h im for the value of his property whether he makes a dollar out of it or not." For Charles L. Bean, and likely for many other county farm­ers, this was as much a concern about a rapidly disappearing way of life as it was about taxes. In many i m p o r t a n t ways, t h e Great Depression did not affect those living in small farming communities as harshly as it did those in urban areas. While some city dwellers appear to have survived and possibly even prospered during the Great Depression, while others struggled. Farmers sometimes faced the possibility of losing their land; but, b a r r i n g that disaster, farmers were able to keep working (although often for less gain), and continued to provide sufficient food for their families by growing it themselves. The Monroe Creamery Company plant was sold in 1930 to Pet Milk Company, which was able to add an addition to the plant in 1937 for making butter and powdered milk.12 TROUBLED TIMES: SEVIER COUNTY, 1930-1949 173 Salina's business district, lanuary 1938. (Utah State Historical Society) Leila Oldroyd, who grew up in Koosharem during the Depression, remembered that her father, a farmer, worked at a sawmill in the mountains during the summer months. He was also a "pretty good" carpenter. He had his own milk cows, pigs, and chick­ens, Mrs. Oldroyd recalled. As economic times became increasingly more difficult in the early 1930s, the family simply lived off of what the farm produced. For non-farm products, such as clothing or other store items, they either shopped at the Grass Valley "Merc" or ordered from a catalog.13 Much of the Richfield Reaper edition for 12 October 1930 cen­tered u p o n local politics. In fact, the platforms of the Republicans and the Democrats filled the front page of this edition. The Sevier C o u n t y Republicans had had minor troubles in 1920 over the a p p o i n t m e n t of a replacement for deceased commissioner A.K. Hansen of Richfield. The county G.O.P. remained alive a n d well, however, in the rural and conservative county. Its platform promoted the principles set forth by the national and state party organizations: 174 HISTORY OF SEVIER COUNTY "We believe that the policies of the present [Hoover] administration will result in t h e economic stability of our state and nation," the county Republicans professed.14 This continuing support of Herbert Hoover's increasingly unpopular policies would come back to haunt the Republicans of Sevier County two years later. On the other hand, the 1930 p l a t f o rm of Sevier County's Democrats voiced continuing endorsement of Governor George H. Dern. The Democrats, in an undisguised effort to court the county's farm vote, n o t e d in t h e i r p l a t f o rm the primacy of a g r i c u l t u r e to Sevier County's economy. The Democrats, seeming to foresee Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1932 strategy, condemned the Republican p l a t f o rm as being " i n a d e q u a t e for the distress which prevails throughout farming communities." They also went on record in favor of an old-age pension, promoted by Francis Townsend of California, which had passed the Utah state legislature during the previous ses­sion. 15 This was a precursor of the later national social security sys­tem. By 1932 the escalating discontent of the people of the United States led to the repudiation of the policies of Herbert Hoover in the hope of new ideas. Americans chose Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt to succeed Hoover in t h a t year's presidential election. Whatever its merits, Hoover's conservative, pro-business plan to pull the country out of the economic crisis simply had not worked. Franklin D. Roosevelt had been elected on a platform calling for change. Nationally, Roosevelt defeated Hoover soundly, and in Utah Roosevelt captured 116,750 votes to 84,795 for Hoover. Four years earlier, Hoover h a d carried Utah by some 15,000 votes, w i n n i ng Sevier C o u n t y by a t w o - t o - o n e margin. But in Sevier, a farming county with severe economic problems, Roosevelt's promise to help "the forgotten man" played quite well; still, Hoover won in the county by 78 votes (2,303 to 2,225).16 In the senatorial races that year, Democrat Elbert D. Thomas defeated Utah's incumbent Republican senator Reed Smoot by more than 30,000 votes. In Sevier County, Thomas won by 2,303 votes to Smoot's 2,220, a much closer contest t h a n it was across the state.17 Locally attractive features of Roosevelt's promised "New Deal" fol- TROUBLED TIMES: SEVIER COUNTY, 1930-1949 175 The Redmond Clay and Salt Company building, an important business in northern Sevier County. (Allan Kent Powell) lowing his election included the Agricultural Adjustment Act, a plan to aid struggling farmers and help stabilize America's farms. Most of the nation clambered aboard Franklin D. Roosevelt's Democratic bandwagon throughout the 1930s, and Sevier County generally followed suit. Four years after his 1932 landslide, Roosevelt was again victorious in the presidential election. In Sevier County, the Democratic avalanche helped elect two Democratic county com­missioners- Chariton Seegmiller defeated Republican Adolf Nielson by over one thousand votes for the four-year commission seat, while another Democrat, Delbert Hansen, captured the two-year slot by defeating his Republican challenger Edwin Sorensen 2,505 votes to 2,251. Democrats won all other county offices in 1936 as well.18 By the end of 1930 Sevier County was allocating $6,500 for the next year's poor fund, an increase of $1,300 over the previous year's allotment.19 The county's fearful expectations for 1931 were not unfounded. There were various hard-pressed individuals across the county; hence, relief for the impoverished people of Sevier County was much needed. In December 1930, to list but one example, a Mr. 176 HISTORY OF SEVIER COUNTY Roundy of Richfield appeared before the county commissioners to request "financial support [since] he was unable to obtain work."20 For the most part, local businesses seemed to survive the Depression. Some small businesses, such as cafes and soda shops, struggled during the Depression since people simply had less money to spend on nonessentials. Many retail stores such as Christensen's Department Store in downtown Richfield continued operations, albeit with declining profits. At Christensen's, price markdowns were frequently necessary in the early 1930s in order to sell merchandise to hesitant consumers. The department store had only opened its doors in March 1929, just seven months before the great crash of the following October. Store owner Alten Christensen had no way of comparing the situation with business fluctuations from an earlier era.21 In 1930 Soren Christiansen renamed the Richfield Furniture Company the Christiansen Furniture Company. This was Richfield's first furniture company, founded in the 1880s by H. P. Hansen. Through the difficult economic times of the Depression, the Christiansen Furniture Company survived and expanded to other towns in the county and also to Salt Lake City. In 1964 Ralph H. Christiansen became the owner of the furniture stores and changed the name to Christiansen Furniture and Carpet Company. The automotive service businesses of Richfield weathered the storm of the Great Depression fairly well. In 1931 Malicotte Motor Company and Utah Service and Garage consolidated into the Sevier Car Market of Richfield. Competition for business was keen and the new company offered inducements, including 100 gallons of free gasoline with each car purchase, to attract customers.22 The New Deal programs of the Franklin D. Roosevelt adminis­tration began to appear in Sevier County by the summer of 1933. The "Blue Eagle," which symbolized a company's support of the National Recovery Administration (NRA), was very evident in the upper right-hand corner of every front page of the Richfield Reaper throughout the Depression years. The National Industrial Recovery Act (passed by Congress in June 1933) placed wage, labor, and price controls on businesses. The blue eagle symbol told consumers that the business was complying with the legislation. The National TROUBLED TIMES: SEVIER COUNTY, 1930-1949 177 Recovery Administration, which implemented these controls, has been called "the New Deal's greatest effort."23 In August 1933 Frank G. Martines, a former mayor of Richfield and later a candidate for governor of Utah, was appointed by Governor Henry Blood to represent Sevier County in the local dis­trict of the National Recovery Administration (NRA) to aid in the implementation of the National Industrial Recovery Act. Martines was to "consult state administrative officers of the NRA in regard to the program to be carried out here." The primary functions of the district NRA officers were to "contact every employer and urge the signing up and strict maintenance of the [National Industrial Recovery Act] code as it applies to them and to see that the various groups adhere to a policy of fair competition."24 By 1933 Sevier County was making plans to accommodate a Civilian Conservation Corps (commonly known as the CCC) unit near Fish Lake. The CCC sought to employ young men from needy families, forming them into military-type units to work on conser­vation and road construction projects. The intent of the Civilian Conservation Corps was two-fold: to provide work and to build or repair the nation's roads, watersheds, and campgrounds. One of the most popular and successful of the New Deal programs, the CCC employed several thousand young men in Utah between 1933 and 1941. The initial quota of CCC workers for Sevier County was forty-eight men. They were housed in forest camps and were paid a dollar a day plus food and shelter for the labor they performed. Much of their effort went toward repairing the damage done to mountain watersheds by overgrazing. By October 1933 the U.S. Forest Service had established camp F-25 at Richfield to work solely on erosion con­trol. 25 During the winter of 1933-34, plans were laid for the young men of the Fish Lake, Sevier County, CCC camp and the Grover, Wayne County, CCC camp to relocate to Richfield. The Fish Lake camp (officially known as F-12) served the needs of the U.S. Forest Service. Seven miles north of Fish Lake, another Forest Service unit (F-13) was established in a tent camp near a spot known as the Frying Pan.26 Like other CCC camps assigned to the Fish Lake National Forest, the men worked on flood-control projects, road repair, campground 178 HISTORY OF SEVIER COUNTY maintenance, and erosion control. Both Fish Lake camps established their winter quarters at the Richfield fairgrounds. Later, the location for the barracks was changed to the Richfield airport. This plan fur­ther aided the community's economy when a $14,000 barracks was erected which was to be " t u r n e d over" to the city when the Depression had ended. "The establishment of the camp here for the winter," the Reaper noted, "will be an advantage to Richfield, as it will employ forty car­penters, four plumbers, four electricians and other skilled labor for at least thirty days and after the camp is fully established it will mean an expenditure of $80 a day locally for commissary, in addition to bringing a payroll to the 200 boys who will be enlisted in the camp for the winter."27 Many of these young corpsmen hailed from either Sevier or Wayne counties. A number of young men from outside the state were assigned to other CCC camps in the county. Some stayed and m a r r i e d local girls, establishing businesses in the county. Although the CCC men were required to send most of their pay back home to their families, the five dollars a m o n t h they were allowed to keep provided a valuable and much-desired economic boost to the merchants of t h e towns, including Richfield, in which they spent their money. Another New Deal agency which impacted Sevier County was the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The WPA provided fed­eral financing for a number of public projects in Utah between 1935 and 1942. WPA workers built dams and canals, did highway con­struction and maintenance work, and built or renovated dozens of public buildings. Leila Oldroyd, who was about eleven years old at the time, recalled a unique WPA project at Koosharem: They came through and they, well, at that time almost everyone had an outdoor toilet, because there wasn't too much indoor plumbing at that time, during the depression, and I remember the WPA very, very well, that's what they did. They came in and they built everybody an outdoor toilet.28 She also recalled that "a couple of our girls just a little bit older than I was married WPA workers." Another WPA project in Richfield during 1936 was the improve- TROUBLED TIMES: SEVIER COUNTY, 1930-1949 179 ment of the old pioneer cemetery located at the county seat. "The purpose of the project," the Richfield Reaper reported, "is to bring the cemetery grounds into harmony with the adjoining campus, and to insure its permanent care."29 Richfield residents who died between 1864 and 1880 were buried in this cemetery. The $1,000 project was sponsored by the city at the request of the Richfield camps of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers. P.F. Peterson, who managed the Sevier County office of the national employment service, a nationwide job-search network implemented by the Roosevelt administration, was a busy man in 1933. Approximately 700 unemployed men enrolled during the first few months of the office's operation. The Morrison-Knudsen Construction Company, which held a contract to build a road link­ing Marysvale in Piute County with Sevier County was hiring about 160 men to do the work. Other workers were needed to assist with the construction of the CCC barracks in Richfield. Peterson observed to the Reaper that the national employment service was intended as "a service to the employer as well as the unemployed." Probably its strongest selling point during those hard times was that "it is free to both."30 Construction projects sponsored by the federal government began to stimulate Sevier County's sagging economy by the fall of 1933. The newspaper reported on the construction activity for the CCC winter quarters: The busy sound of hammers and saws at the Richfield airport is music to the ears of some 20 Sevier county carpenters who will have employment at $6 a day for approximately three weeks in the construction of winter quarters for the CCC. camp which is to be stationed here until spring.31 The frame barracks would house 200 men during the winter months. Besides the sleeping quarters, the airport site eventually included a mess hall and an administration office. One group of CCC workers was to be engaged during the winter months building a "wood road" running twelve miles into the west mountains toward Fillmore. Another group would string telephone lines to give the Fish Lake area a direct connection with the rest of Sevier County.32 180 HISTORY OF SEVIER COUNTY Richfield High School, lanuary 1938. (Utah State Historical Society) A New Deal program of great interest in Sevier County was the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA). Passed by the "Hundred Days" Congress on 12 May 1933, the "Triple-A" endeavored to create scarcity in order to raise prices of agricultural produce by urging farmers either not to plant or to plow under existing crops. The pro­gram confused and angered many Americans struggling against hunger, as its long-range goals were not immediately evident to hun­gry Americans who heard the news of perfectly good food being destroyed. Said Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace of Iowa, "I hope we shall never have to resort to it again. To destroy a standing crop goes against the soundest instincts of human nature."33 The pro­gram never achieved the results or popularity of the CCC, but it did help establish a practice of federal farm supports and subsidies that still exists at the present time. Farmers received a good deal of federal attention in the aftermath of Roosevelt's inauguration in 1933. In December 1933, farm homes in Sevier County were being surveyed by representatives of the gov- TROUBLED TIMES: SEVIER COUNTY, 1930-1949 181 ernment as to the need for improvements. Over 1,500 homes in the county were surveyed during late 1933 and written reports were sub­m i t t e d to the government. S.R. Boswell, t h e Sevier C o u n t y farm agent, was in charge of the surveys locally. An engineer was to draw up plans for identified improvements and the necessary work was to be overseen by state officials.34 In the spring of 1934 four Sevier County men-H.B. Crandal, S.E. Tanner, Irvin L. Warnock, and C h a r l t o n Seegmiller-were a p p o i n t e d to t h e state farm adjustment committee by Governor Henry Blood, who had been swept into office with the Democratic landslide of 1932. This committee was organized to assist b o t h local debtors and creditors in an effort to reach "friendly, sensible and fair" solutions to debt problems. "It is expected," read the words of the Richfield Reaper, "that their efforts will tend to settle many problems that heretofore resulted in unnecessary foreclosure."35 The repercussions of the economic plight went beyond the farm­stead. In November 1933 A.J. Ashman, the superintendent of Sevier County's public schools, a n n o u n c e d a p l a n to assist unemployed school teachers. According to word received by Ashman from the fed­eral government, teachers might be employed to do any of the fol­lowing types of school work: First, to continue rural schools which would otherwise close or be greatly curtailed due to lack of funds; second, to teach adults unable to read and write English; third, to give vocational training to the unemployed to qualify them to enter employment; fourth, to give vocational training to adults who are physically handi­capped; fifth, to give general training to other adults to help them become more effective citizens.36 According to Superintendent Ashman, the relief agencies were "anx­ious" to get the classes organized in the district. The following month, the Reaper announced the commencement of adult-education classes "under the federal government plan to fur­nish employment to unemployed teachers."37 Courses of instruction included bookkeeping, taught by WL. Ashby, and English grammar and t w e n t i e t h - c e n t u r y literature with Ila Dastrup. Sophia 182 HISTORY OF SEVIER COUNTY Goldbranson offered penmanship, letter writing, and spelling; sports, health, and recreation classes were taught by Thelma Dastrup. During what must have been for some a very bleak Christmas of 1933, local advertisements urged Sevier County residents to shop early and to be sure to buy from local merchants, who deserve "100 per cent of your patronage." Excerpts from a tongue-in-cheek take­off of "T'was the Night Before Christmas," entitled "It's Days Before Christmas," published in the Richfield Reaper, likely told an accurate story of that beleaguered Christmas as viewed through the eyes of a struggling parent: It's days before Christmas and in our small cot The kids are all dreaming of what Kris has got; They hope he has skates, some trains and great dolls And even bright nothings and such fol-der-ols. I tell them that Kris is a practical guy, That worthless old gim-cracks he never will buy; He may bring a sweater, some socks, or a hat, Or mittens or cord'roys and such stuff as that. . . . By gum, we'll get busy and we'll do our stuff; We've got our two eyes and our hands-that's enough. I'll get my knife busy, my saw and my plane- Why that solves our problem-I'm happy again! My Mary can make jest the swankiest tricks That ever was dreamed of-No toys? Fiddlesticks! We'll cut and we'll fit and we'll paint and we'll draw Such stuff as we'll have no Kris ever saw!38 During the 1930s America was a c o u n t r y concerned with pro­tecting community morals; not surprisingly, Sevier County lawmak­ers seem to have c o n c u r r e d . In 1932 t h e c o u n t y commissioners, declaring that an unspecified "emergency" existed, established clos­ing times for dance halls at 1:30 A.M. (Sunday closure being manda­t o r y ) . D u r i n g the same years, a c o u n t y ordinance called for the licensing of dance halls, confectioneries, barber shops, soft-drink par­lors, and hot-dog stands. The licensing fee ran from twenty dollars a year for hot-dog stands to $150 a year for dance halls.39 Some licens­ing was no doubt intended to raise revenue more t h a n to regulate TROUBLED TIMES: SEVIER COUNTY, 1930-1949 183 The old North Sevier High School Building in Salina, now the North Sevier lunior High School. (Allan Kent Powell) public morals; but, on the whole, county residents were generally law-abiding and attentive to their own concerns. The great social experiment of Prohibition was repudiated in 1933, the Utah legisla­ture casting the deciding vote in the matter, and it can safely be assumed that many in Sevier County as elsewhere were relieved to reduce government interference in their affairs even if most were not longing to legally sip alcoholic beverages. Occupying considerable space in the Richfield Reaper during 1933 and 1934 was the public discussion about building a new hos­pital for the county. The Richfield Lions Club led out in this com­munity movement. "The chief topic of discussion at the meeting of the Richfield Lions club Wednesday evening was the proposed county hospital building and the commitment of the members was over­whelmingly in favor of this project," the Reaper reported on its front page for 26 October 1933. At the meeting of the county commissioners the following month, the erection of a county hospital in Richfield was a matter of some dis­cussion. Committees representing the Venice Farm Bureau, the Sevier 184 HISTORY OF SEVIER COUNTY County Taxpayers League, and the Business and Profession Women, a women's club in Richfield, as well as concerned individuals from Glenwood and Richfield appeared before the commissioners to voice their opinions. Some supported the proposed hospital-which could be built with federal assistance-while others stood in opposition because of the money that would still be required from local citizens.40 By January 1934 a group that the newspaper termed the "repre­sentative citizens of Richfield" was mobilizing to push for the con­struction of the hospital. These leading residents of the county seat vowed before the Richfield City Council "to exhaust every resource before they will submit to a verdict against the establishment of a county hospital here while funds are still available from the public works administration on such generous terms." Designated to lead this fight for their fellow residents were Mayor WL. Warner, Mrs. J.L. Sevy, and Mrs. WS. Greenwood.41 The pro-hospital forces hoped to qualify for New Deal funds to assist in the construction of the structure. A comparison was drawn with a hospital recently built at Cedar City in Iron County. Richfield doctor D.B. Gottfredson, who had visited the Cedar City facility, judged the two sites to be very similar. A hospital in Richfield would, Dr. Gottfredson believed, "serve a greater territory and really should have better support than the one at Cedar City owing to the more diversified resources of this community." In fact, the Richfield Reaper quoted Dr. Gottfredson as saying, "There is no other community in the state or perhaps any other state which has greater need of or is more entitled to a hospital than is Sevier County."42 While Dr. Gottfredson might have been thought by some to be self-serving in this statement, he likely voiced the opinion of most residents of Richfield and, perhaps, even of the county. Gottfredson also argued the economic benefits of the hospital. Turning once more to Iron County's hospital, he said that the "total sum" which this hospital had cost that county annually in the several years of its existence was only $7,000. This expense represented, he observed, "about the amount budgeted by [Sevier] county for its indigent expense." Furthermore, according to the doctor, "the four [current] Richfield physicians would be willing to rent offices in the hospital which, if they paid at the rate they now pay elsewhere, would TROUBLED TIMES: SEVIER COUNTY, 1930-1949 185 mean an added revenue to the hospital of approximately $1,200 a year." Finally, it was noted that at Richfield "the federal government was spending $15,000 a year for the maintenance and upkeep of the armory and a unit of the national guard." Furthermore, the govern­ment was expected to "plan hospitals for certain areas."43 Sevier County, like most other counties, was not averse to calling upon the government to help with its needs. On 16 November 1933 the Sevier County Commission heard the arguments in favor of the Richfield hospital. The Richfield Lions Club, initially the driving force behind the hospital movement; the Richfield Parents-Teachers Association; the Richfield Study Club; the Monroe Lions Club; the Business and Professional Women's Club; and the Richfield Business Men's Association all went on record in support of the hospital. But the Reaper went on to note that "there have been several committees from the n o r t h end of the county who have appeared before the commissioners in opposition to this pro­posed hospital and also some local groups have presented arguments against it."44 An article the following week gave m o r e specifics about this opposition. "Various units of the Farm bureau have filed protests," it was reported, "and also, the Sevier County Taxpayers league opposed the matter." Commission chairman Moroni Jensen admitted that at the present time "the opposition appears to outweigh the element that favors building a hospital" and stated that the commissioners (Jensen, Edwin Sorensen, and G.A. Staples) were only desirous of serving the public." Hence, although all commissioners were in agree­ment that "there is a great need for such an i n s t i t u t i o n here," and admitted that there will probably never come a time again when it could be built upon such easy terms as the government is offering during this emergency work program [Public Works Administration], yet he added that the main and perhaps deciding factor is the matter of financing a hospital, both as to its original cost and as to its main­tenance. 45 Falling back on the caution often exhibited by politicians, and observing that the county already had some "heavy obligations" else- 186 HISTORY OF SEVIER COUNTY where, c o n s i d e r a t i o n of a c o u n t y hospital for Richfield was sus­pended. The commissioners stated on 23 November 1933 that "they had not reached a decision on the subject although delegations had come from Salina, Redmond, Aurora, Annabella and Monroe with protests against building it."46 Thus, the hospital proposal was put on hold by the county commission. Supporters of the hospital in the city of Richfield remained res­olute, however. After the county commissioners "failed to take favor­able action . . . due to determined opposition from the n o r t h end of the county and various other communities and organizations who feared an increase in t h e tax levy," Richfield's project supporters, refusing to give u p the plan, turned elsewhere for the needed support. Furthermore, city attorney Henry F. Beal told the Richfield Reaper that "this hospital will not cost the city or taxpayers of Richfield or Sevier County one cent in the way of taxes."47 A source of opposition to the construction of a new hospital in Richfield came from Salina and the other northern communities in the county. The residents of Salina already had a private hospital, which had been completed in 1917 just before the outbreak of the Spanish influenza epidemic, and the multistory building provided the northern part of the county with excellent medical services. Dr. Margaret Ann Freece was one of the physicians who attended to the sick and injured of Salina, Aurora, and Redmond and was one of the county's fine physicians. Born in Scipio, she a t t e n d e d the Presbyterian school in Scipio and Wasatch Academy in Mt. Pleasant. She continued her education by attending Northwestern University Woman's Medical College in Chicago, Illinois, where she received a medical degree. At the t u r n of the century, she r e t u r n e d to Salina where her mother and other members of her family were living. She began her medical practice working from a small office in her home. Dr. Freece was the first woman elected vice-president of the Utah Medical Association. The community thought highly of her. "We did not think it was strange to have a woman doctor, we were just grate­ful for her," commented a resident of Salina.48 According to her biog­rapher, Freece was also involved in the Community Church of Salina, a director of the Sevier Valley Coal Company, a director of the First TROUBLED TIMES: SEVIER COUNTY, 1930-1949 187 State Bank of Salina, and a stockholder in the Salina Grain and Milling Company. The city of Richfield went directly to the Public Works Administration (PWA), seeking a loan to build the desired hospital. In March 1934 Mayor Warner and City Attorney Beal informed the public, "Richfield's application for a $55,000 loan for the construc­tion and equipment of a thoroughly modern hospital was acted upon [favorably]." Definitive plans for the hospital were announced in 1936 when it was reported that "appropriation for a three-story, fire proof brick hospital in Richfield" was finalized.49 As the Reaper had noted two years before with faintly disguised smugness, now "Sevier County will have to pay for hospitalization of their indigent cases, just as outside counties to the east and south of here will have to do," because "this is to be strictly a Richfield hospital."50 The hospital was very much needed. In 1934, for example, only 10.5 percent of the babies born in the county were born in a hospital. The state average for hospital-born babies that year was 35.8 per­cent- the lowest percentage was in Carbon County, with 3 percent, and the highest percentage was in Grand County with over 90 per­cent of its babies born in a hospital.51 That year, a public health nurse was appointed for Sevier County, followed in 1935 by a district health office. The county in the early 1930s was fortunate to have at least seven physicians living in the county who assisted in delivering babies at home. In 1936 the private Sevier Valley Hospital and Clinic was opened in Richfield to help serve area medical needs.52 A city hall was built in Monroe in 1934. That city also had many active civic groups, including a local Lions Club, formed in 1927, a literary club, Daughters of Utah Pioneers (DUP) chapter, and an American Legion post. Salina and other area towns also were served by their citizens, who joined church, civic, and service organizations to serve their communities. Salina too had a Lions Club and DUP camp, one of numerous DUP camps in the county. The lack of spe­cific mention of these groups in this history is not meant to slight their importance. It is the individual citizens and their often uncele­brated efforts, after all, which constitute the heart of any county. A municipal building was constructed in Salina in 1936-37 with the assistance of the WPA, which paid 50 percent of the building's cost. 188 HISTORY OF SEVIER COUNTY Built in 1934 with funding from the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the Monroe City Hall initially housed city offices, a jail, a courtroom, public library, and an assembly room. (Allan Kent Powell) An airport was also built in Richfield as a WPA project in 1936-37 with the assistance of a $30,000 federal grant. Based on statistics compiled by the Utah Emergency Relief Program for the period from 1 April 1934 to 31 December 1935, about 24 percent of the county's population received some kind of public relief assistance. Similar percentages of relief assistance were found in neighboring counties: Sanpete, 25.2 percent; Emery, 37 per­cent; Millard, 31.9 percent; Piute, 28.4 percent; and Wayne, 14.3 per­cent. 53 For the same reporting period, Sevier County received $60.26 per capita in assistance in the form of direct relief, surplus com­modities received, drouth relief, reservoir construction or repair, san­itation assistance, and other relief programs.54 A wide variety of civil works projects including sidewalks, improvements of roads and bridges, pest control, airport improvements, nursing, nutritional and health care assistance, flood and erosion control, culinary water lines installed or repaired, pit privies constructed, and other projects accounted for the $60.26 per capita assistance. Floods were once again a part of life in Sevier County during the TROUBLED TIMES: SEVIER COUNTY, 1930-1949 189 The Richfield Post Office, February 1938. (Utah State Historical Society) 1930s. They impacted the life of the county's farming villages in ways other than just damaging crops and ruining a season's hard work. As a 8 August 1934 report from Monroe depicts, the r u i n could affect domestic life as well: The city is without culinary water and power today as a result of a flood in Monroe Canyon last Monday (2 days ago). The fields south of town were covered by floodwaters, rocks, and other debris. Damage was estimated at several thousand dollars.55 Within eight days (on 14 August) Monroe was struck once again. This time the deluge caused even greater damage. Waters rushing out of the nearby canyons resulted in "heavy damage" to a pipeline which had just been replaced since the disaster of the previous week. "This time 200 feet washed out," observers noted, "compared to 60 before." Monroe Canyon roads were washed away by t h e rapidly moving floodwaters. The farmland south of Monroe "received an additional covering of m u d and debris."56 190 HISTORY OF SEVIER COUNTY This same August storm also wreaked havoc upon Richfield. The downpour nearly resulted in a loss of life when floodwaters pouring from nearby canyons overtook a fleeing family in a farm wagon. "The occupants of the wagon had a narrow escape," it was reported. Eleven days later a torrent of water from Flat Canyon west of Richfield dis­charged sand and rubble throughout the Richfield area. The streets in the northern part of the city were filled with water and mud. Floods continued to worry the people of the county through the 1940s.57 Due to the success of President Roosevelt's New Deal programs, the once eagerly anticipated glass factory, which had seemingly died nine years earlier, sprang to life again in the fall of 1938. The Richfield Reaper alerted the public to this new development with the follow­ing news: Renewed hope that Richfield may yet have the plate glass factory which has been considered, is inspired by the announcement in the Salt Lake papers recently to the effect that the Western Plate Glass Co. has filed application with the state securities commission to sell stock for a factory to be located in Richfield, Utah.58 By 1938, t h e financial crisis had all but run its course and Western Plate Glass seemed ready to move forward. The company intended to manufacture 6.1 million square feet of plate glass annu­ally at the envisioned Richfield plant. O.U. Metcalf, director of the company, was reported by the Reaper to have "been in Richfield a number of times just recently." Sevier County's abundant supply of the natural resources required for glass production-gypsum, silica, and salt-had attracted the eastern corporation to Richfield. "It is this fact," said Dr. T.R. Gledhill, "and this alone which is bringing this glass factory to Richfield." There was n o large plate glass factory west of the Mississippi River, reported the Richfield Reaper. Since it cost $2.20 a t on in freight charges to transport the necessary raw materi­als to the company's plant near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Western Plate Glass had decided to build a plant nearer to the resources. It was estimated that in Sevier County the required silica could be mined and shipped to the plant for under $2.00 per ton.59 The anticipated economic benefits that the county could hope to derive from the glass factory were great. The construction of the new TROUBLED TIMES: SEVIER COUNTY, 1930-1949 19J_ 100-acre plant would employ scores of local men. Mining the natural resources would permanently employ many more. It was anticipated that $5 million would be expended on construction and employment within Sevier County.60 In the wake of the worst economic downturn in the nation's history, this was, indeed, a rosy picture for county res­idents to envision. Further agreement on the use of Sevier River irrigation water was reached in 1938. A pact between Sevier, Piute, and Garfield counties was signed which, the newspaper reported, "may be considered the end of the [water] difficulties which have for years confronted the users along the river." Irrigation companies from Joseph, Monroe, Elsinore, Richfield, and Annabella, now legally known as the "Miscellaneous Sevier Valley Morse Decree Users," would be "entitled to the [full] use of the waters decreed to t h em and their predeces­sors." From 15 April to 15 October "in each and every year, to the extent that the water is hereafter available in the Sevier river . . . they shall have the right to the use of the same during said period of time by direct diversion or by s t o r i n g the same or any p a r t thereof."61 Those farmers in the southern p o r t i o n of the county, who enjoyed the spring runoff first, could not store water until October. The Sevier Valley Canal Company, located in the n o r t h e r n portion of the valley, received the Sevier's flow last, but it enjoyed the privilege of diversion and/or storage during the first fifteen days in April when the river's flow generally was the greatest. Additionally, those companies which supplied water for culinary use and stock watering "shall only be enti­tled to such quantity as is reasonable for said purposes."62 As the Great Depression was weakening in 1939, Arch McKinlay and his son, O.R. (Bob), purchased Martinez Motors, which had started doing business in Richfield in 1916, renamed it McKinlay Chevrolet, and began selling cars in Sevier County. Six years after the McKinlays opened their dealership, Chevrolet introduced a sports car, the Corvette. However, with a price tag a r o u n d $1,800, no Corvettes were sold in Sevier C o u n t y at that time. Along with McKinlay Chevrolet, Richfield was also the home during the Depression and war years of 1930 to 1945 to Whiting Motors, a Buick and GMC dealer, and Pearsons, which sold Pontiacs, Cadillacs, and Ramblers.63 192 HISTORY OF SEVIER COUNTY Richfield Business District, February 1938. (Utah State Historical Society) By 1938, old political loyalties appeared to be making a come­back. One Democratic commission candidate, W.W. Sylvester, defeated Republican Lawrence W Jones by only two votes (2,604 to 2,602); in the other race, Republican Ray H. Buchanan beat his Democratic rival by 600 votes. From that point on the return to a tra­ditional Republican majority in the county was all but complete. In 1940, although Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to an unprece­dented third term and received a large majority of votes in Utah, Republican challenger Wendell Wilkie outpolled him 2,695 to 2,500 votes in Sevier County. Incumbent Democratic Senator Abe Murdock did slightly outpoll his Republican challenger, Philo T, Farnsworth, by thirty votes. In 1944, although Roosevelt won a fourth term, he was again outvoted in Sevier County by his Republican chal­lenger, Thomas Dewey, 2,401 votes to 2,163. All other Republican nominees for major offices also received a majority of votes in Sevier County, although all lost in their statewide races.64 Water continued as one of the county's most valued yet difficult TROUBLED TIMES: SEVIER COUNTY, 1930-1949 193 resources to manage. It seemed that either there was too little or there was too much. In the latter instance, flooding, usually short in dura­tion, had created serious problems in various communities, especially on the east side of the county. The people of Salina, Monroe, and Annabella especially had periodically witnessed flood damage to their communities. Due to the work of the CCC and other New Deal pro­jects to control runoff, flooding after the 1930s was generally a result of brief but violent summer thunderstorms. In late July 1939 flooding of Monroe, Main, and Sand canyons caused damage to roads and private property; south of Annabella, flood waters washed out part of the local canal.65 Four years later, almost to the day, a sudden summer thunderstorm flooded parts of Monroe and the city cemetery, causing an estimated $80,000 in dam­age. On 5 August 1943 a second thunderstorm caused even more damage, this time an estimated $120,000 in damages, leaving the city of Monroe without electricity for two weeks.66 Having fought the local battle over the construction of a new hospital, within the next decade Sevier County residents, along with the rest of the nation's citizens, would fight more deadly enemies dur­ing the Second World War. The first allusions to the imminent world war started to appear in the Richfield Reaper in 1939. At that time, the newspaper started publishing a syndicated series from the Western Newspaper Union called "Weekly News Analysis by Henry R. Porter." The first installment was on the mounting crisis in Poland. "In a des­perate effort to avert the holocaust of war which threatens to engulf Europe," the summary began, "President Roosevelt appealed directly to Chancellor Adolf Hitler of Germany . . . to refrain from hostilities for a 'reasonable and stipulated period' and attempt to settle their dif­ficulties" through negotiation.67 But to the horror of the world, Hitler would not talk. The head­line of the next report from Porter stunned many county residents: "Germany Opens War on Poland."68 This occurred on 1 September 1939, just two days after President Roosevelt's appeal for peace. Apprehensive residents of Sevier County and the rest of Utah began to fear that the United States would become involved in war; and, in fact, within two years the United States would become entangled in a war not only with Germany but also with Japan. 194 HISTORY OF SEVIER COUNTY Although he had already served two terms as president, Franklin D. Roosevelt chose to break with American tradition and seek a third t e rm in 1940, believing that the increasingly ominous worldwide sit­uation demanded a continuation of his leadership. Again the people of the country voted to return h im to the White House. In the 1940 presidential election, c o u n t y voters opposed Roosevelt's bid for a n o t h e r term, casting the majority of their votes for Republican Wendell Wilkie. Sevier County voters also went against the political current in the nation and in the state in the 1944 presidential elec­tions: in Utah, Roosevelt received 150,088 votes and Thomas Dewey garnered 97,891; in Sevier County, Dewey received 2,401 votes to Roosevelt's 2,163. An account of the human impact of the Second World War upon the south-central region of Utah can be illustrated through the rec­ollections of local people. Betty Olsen Erickson of Venice recalled the feeling that the b o m b i n g of Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 brought: "I remember this Sunday night at seven o'clock. The radio announcer broke into the regular p r o g r am and said, 'Pearl Harbor has just been bombed by the Japanese.' We were all in shock."69 Four days later, the weekly Richfield Reaper, in announcing the attack, wrote of "treachery in the Pacific." Summing up the events of the past several days, the paper communicated emotions which must have been almost universally felt across Sevier County and the United States: Into this community, as into every other community in America, there has stalked the grim visage of war and there has come a sense of direct and kindred loss as those ties that know no bounds of time or space link all America to the men whose lives were lost at the hands of treachery last Sunday.70 The Richfield Reaper went on to notify Sevier citizens that by a joint resolution of the Senate and the House "the state of war between the United States and the imperial Japanese g o v e r n m e n t . . . is hereby for­mally declared." Pearl Harbor brought great personal tragedy to two young men from Monroe, Keith Taylor and Dean Larsen. Taylor, an anti-aircraft gunner on the USS West Virginia, was killed when the Japanese TROUBLED TIMES: SEVIER COUNTY, 1930-1949 195 la ~*r1. 1 1 The Utah National Guard Armory in Richfield, October 1947. (Utah State Historical Society) attacked on 7 December 1941. Twenty-five-year-old Dean Larsen of Monroe was a musician who was also aboard the West Virginia when it was sunk. Larsen was first listed as "missing-in-action."71 Gus Erickson remembered those unsettling days of early December 1941, stating, "We knew we'd be in a war which we'd been hoping to avoid." Nevertheless, the local people rallied to the cause. Erickson depicted the scene at Venice as one of "flag waving" and other "gallant things." He felt nervous, but willing, about going off to fight. "I think everyone was hoping against hope that something would come up and we wouldn't have to go," he said.72 In March 1942 Gus Erickson joined the Marine Corps and within days was on his way to San Diego for boot camp. During the course of the war, Erickson saw action at Tulagi, near Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Islands. As the Marines were preparing to land on the morning of 7 August 1942, the U.S. Navy was shelling the island. Erickson reported that "you could actually see the shells 196 HISTORY OF SEVIER COUNTY flying through the air." They found the landing on Tulagi "fairly easy." The ease which Erickson and his comrades experienced may have been due to the fact that the Japanese on the island were surprised by the Marine assault.73 Gus Erickson later served on Guadalcanal, where he experienced heavy enemy shelling, which he later recalled as feeling like he was "being hit on the helmet with a hammer."74 This experience left a last­ing impact upon him. For years later, after he and his wife, Betty, were married, she reported that "when I would go u p to h im and touch h im or he would get kicked in the middle of the night, he would react as though he were in battle again."75 By the spring of 1942, Sevier County men were either volunteer­ing for service or being inducted into the military. On 10 April 1942 an article in the Reaper reported: "Another Group of Selectees Will Leave Soon for U.S. Army." The names of the fifteen men slated for conscription in May were published in the newspaper. Some 1,200 men from Sevier County were inducted into the service during the war years.76 County citizens supported the war effort through rationing pro­grams and war b o n d drives. The Richfield Culture Club, founded in 1939, was one of many county groups and school classes especially active in the various war b o n d purchase campaigns over the years. Betty Erickson remembered life on the home front in Sevier County: [W]e were doing all we possibly could in order to support these guys I remember that they let school out early in April to make it so that the kids that were still home could get out and work in the fields with their dads to raise more food for the war effort. The war effort was the main thing.77 She said that on the home front they rationed gasoline, meat, sugar, and various other items. "The girls didn't have stockings because that was before nylons came," she recalled, "so we all went bare legged," since silk came from the Orient. Wilford J. Barney, Jr., of Richfield tried to go directly into the mil­itary as soon as he graduated from high school in 1943. But he was blind in his right eye, so the draft board initially rejected him. But Barney was determined to serve. After several more tries, he found a TROUBLED TIMES: SEVIER COUNTY, 1930-1949 197_ recruitment officer who, when challenged by Barney to a shooting match to prove he could do the job, told him that if he wanted to go that badly he would let him in.78 Wilford Barney originally was enlisted as a clerk typist, but he later volunteered for a special, dangerous assignment. Barney was selected to be a part of the first wave to land at Normandy on D-Day (6 June 1944). Once in France he was assigned to guard German pris­oners of war. For more than twenty years after the war's end he con­tinued to correspond with one of the prisoners.79 The war also provided some unexpected reunions for Sevier County soldiers. On the Pacific island of Okinawa, brothers Gordon and Leland Duffin of Richfield, along with Leo Brienholt of Venice, discovered one another. Gordon, a marine second lieutenant, and Leland, a sergeant in the army, had not seen each other for nearly three years. They, along with Brienholt, were reported to have had "a wonderful reunion" in the midst of the war.80 For the marines, Okinawa was a costly campaign-more than 35,000 soldiers killed or wounded.81 War brought death. By the summer of 1943, as some of Sevier County's finest young men fell victim to war, the need of local activ­ities such as the "Victory Corps" to boost morale was great. One war tragedy was that of Captain LeGrande Frank of Richfield, who died in a Japanese prison camp. Before being called into active service by the Army Reserve in September 1940, LeGrande Frank had served as bishop of the Richfield LDS Second Ward. At the outbreak of war in 1941 Captain Frank was stationed in the Philippines. He took part in the famous siege of Bataan and was probably captured by the Japanese when they overwhelmed the U.S. forces at Bataan early in 1942. Captain Frank had been listed as "missing in action" for more than a year before word of his death arrived back home to his wife, the former Ruth Ence, who had not received a letter from him for nearly one year.82 The same edition of the Richfield Reaper which bore the news of LeGrande Frank's death carried an advertisement which gave a glimpse of the growing animosity and even racial hatred that was sweeping the county. The ad, probably produced by the federal gov­ernment and captioned "SPEAK JAPANESE," told readers: 198 HISTORY OF SEVIER COUNTY Tell them slant-eyes in the only language they understand-the language of shells and bullets! You can do it-by turning in used cooking grease for gunpowder. Rationing needn't stop you. The government doesn't want your fats until all cooking good is gone. Then, every drop is desperately needed. lust one tablespoon full will fire five machine gun bullets. Even with rationing you can save at least that much every day. Rush each canfull to your nearest dealer.83 Each edition of the Reaper from 1943 until the war's end carried a column of the front page entitled "Fightin' Talk." The apparent goal of the section was to offer positive news from the war fronts regard­ing the activities of the local men. For example, the 17 l u n e 1943 edition told Sevier County readers that Private Billy Carter, then sta­tioned at Camp Cook, California, had received a medal honoring his marksmanship and that Chester L. Fuellendbach of the U.S. Navy had left for "overseas duty." It even told about the sons of Mr. and Mrs. E.E. Thurston, "former residents of Richfield." Readers were informed that Ivan Thurston, a sergeant, was serving with the Army Air Corps in North Africa, while Kimball Thurston, a first lieutenant, was sta­tioned in Iran.84 Reports on the county's soldiers were solicited by the newspaper's reporters from the families and friends of the men. The impact which the war was having locally escalated with time. In June 1945, when the war was almost over and the fighting was very intense, the sad news of two more battle deaths was printed in the Richfield Reaper. One of the dead was Pfc. Wayne De Leeuw of neigh­boring Wayne County. He had heroically "crawled out of his fox hole to help an injured comrade" when he was killed fighting in Germany in April 1945. Funeral services were also held for Second Lieutenant Alden Fillmore of Richfield in the Sevier LDS Stake Tabernacle dur­ing June 1945.85 A national wartime activity which was eagerly adopted in Sevier County was the "Victory Corps." The purpose of this p r o g r am was "to bring the high schools of the nation into the war effort and pro­vide a p r o g r am whereby they may contribute their full share to the cause of democracy." A Richfield High School War Council was launched in December 1942, a n d the paper reported that the goal of this council was to "make all conscious that we are engaged in a war TROUBLED TIMES: SEVIER COUNTY, 1930-1949 199 Some of the 250 German prisoners of war sent to Sevier County in 1945 to work in the sugar beet fields. (Courtesy Shirley Probert) for survival." The war council hoped to establish favorable attitudes among high school students toward military needs.86 Wartime brought a sense of excitement as well as of tragedy to county citizens. On 8 April 1943 the Richfield Reaper declared that a simulated air raid was to occur the following Monday: "At 12:00 noon on Monday April 12, Civil Air Patrol planes will fly over the business district dropping leaflet shaped bombs," the newspaper announced. This "action" was to promote the upcoming "Liberty Loan" war-bond sale. The following week the newspaper reported that the "raid" had been a great success. "Under the direction of the Civil Air Patrol," r e p o r t e d the Reaper, "Richfield along with nine other Utah cities staged a mock air raid . . . furnishing a sensational start for the April $50,000,000 war b o n d drive."87 Salina got an even closer look at the war beginning in June 1945 when 250 German prisoners of war (POWs) were sent to the com­munity to aid farmers with the sugar-beet harvest and to perform other agricultural work on local farms. This camp was one of twelve across Utah. The Beehive State became the temporary home for more 200 HISTORY OF SEVIER COUNTY than 8,000 German POWs between January 1944 and June 1946. The Salina prisoners had been sent n o r t h from a POW camp at Florence, Arizona.88 Tragically, the Salina situation turned to one of trouble. Shortly after midnight on the 9 July 1945 many of the town's 2,000 residents were awakened by the sound of gunfire. Had the POWs overpowered their army guards at the old CCC camp east of Salina's Main Street? some wondered. It was well known that the internees were experi­enced veterans of N o r t h African and European battlefields. It was not, however, the prisoners who were doing the shooting; it was an American guard.89 Private First Class Clarence V Bertucci of New Orleans opened fire with a 30-caliber machine gun on the tents of the sleeping prisoners. Six Germans were killed at the scene, three others died later of their wounds. The attack drew national and interna­tional attention to Salina.90 Whether one was concerned about the future due to the horrors of war, had suffered the loss of a loved one on the battlefield, or just longed for peacetime, certainly all residents of Sevier County were elated by the news in August 1945 that at last the war was over. While t h e Germans had s u r r e n d e r e d in May 1945, t h e war with Japan dragged on for three more months. The joy felt locally at the cessa­tion of hostilities was recorded in the Richfield Reaper: When the news that lapan had accepted the peace terms offered by the United Nations came over the air at 5 P.M. on Tuesday, it was raining in Richfield but that did not seem to dampen the spirits of anyone so the weather man soon gave up and let the people have their fun.91 In "nothing flat" the joyous word was said to be all over town, and much of the city's population was celebrating on Main Street. When the men and women of the a r m e d forces finally r e t u r n ed home, the local newspaper claimed, "the celebration will really be complete." More than 1,200 Sevier County men served in the mili­t a r y d u r i n g World War II. Twenty deaths were r e p o r t e d from this group.92 After the war's end, the "Fightin' Talk" newspaper column was TROUBLED TIMES: SEVIER COUNTY, 1930-1949 201 replaced by "Peace Talk," a similar update on men in the armed forces. But now, of course, the news was generally better.93 Postwar Sevier County was a beehive of activity, what with the revived economy and the cessation of hostilities. It seemed that Franklin D. Roosevelt's depression-era maxim, "Happy Days Are Here Again," was more true in 1945 than at any other time since the 1920s. Prosperity had come once more to Sevier County. Worries over loved ones fighting far from home were gone. A return to life as it had been so long ago was desired more than ever. An advertisement appearing in the Richfield Reaper early in September 1945, likely the creation of local businessmen, stated in no uncertain terms that it was now time to resume life as it had been before the war-it was time to reap the rewards of wartime sacrifices. "Farmers want new machinery; housewives want washers, refrigera­tors," read the advertisement. The notice claimed that Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Public wanted a new car and a new radio.94 The wartime Office of Price Administration (OPA) was now tar­geted. The OPA had been created in 1941 as a wing of the War Productions Board, whose duty it was to closely scrutinize all manu­facturing and sales in wartime America. It had been OPA quotas which made life on the home front more difficult for many Americans. By the fall of 1945, with the war over and better times on the horizon, many Americans, including people of Sevier County, saw no further need of the OPA. For the sake of the war effort, merchants had tolerated the price ceiling of 30 percent above 1939 prices and rationing. Now that the conflict was over, why allow the restrictions to continue? Speaking of the Office of Price Administration's actions, this Richfield advertisement blasted the OPA: "Created to maintain necessary price control in wartime, it refuses to recognize the practi­calities of peace."95 Wartime price controls on civilian goods remained in place even after the formal surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945. Neither the nation's businesses nor consumers in Sevier County were happy with President Harry Truman's policy to maintain the system of price con­trols; however, President Truman and others were fearful that infla­tion would create an unstable economy, similar to economic conditions which followed World War I. Political pressure mounted 202 HISTORY OF SEVIER COUNTY on President Truman and Congress to remove price controls, and by the end of 1946 price controls on all consumer items except rents, sugar, and rice were lifted. At Richfield in July 1945 construction started on the Dixon Packing Company's new meat-packing plant. This $50,000 factory, being built just south of the Sevier County Fairgrounds, was expected, upon completion, to process up to two hundred head of lambs, pigs, or beef weekly. According to its directors, who were all Utahns, "the new meat processing plant will fill a need that has long existed in Sevier County to process for market animals that have been grown and fattened locally."96 This local economic development gen­erated a great deal of pride among county residents. Farther to the north, Salina was able to attract a turkey-process­ing plant in 1946 that was moved from Richfield, where it had opened in 1938. This became the start of a major industry for Salina. In April 1948 announcement was made of the Salina Lions Club's efforts "to induce industrial leaders to investigate their community." Besides being one of the nation's leading shipping points for range cattle, it was observed that Salina is "on three major highways, is served by a major railroad and has a modern airfield under construction."97 The Lions Club's efforts to promote the Salina airport were somewhat weakened by plans in 1946 for a new Richfield airport. In 1946, the Salina airport, later changed to the Salina-Gunnison air­port, received a Class-1 classification by the state and was listed as a landing field. During the next several years, the state, using funds received from the Civil Aeronautics Administration, made improve­ments to the airport, grading the landing strip and making other improvements.98 The war's end brought other changes to life in Sevier County. "Because of the lifting of gas rationing," the Richfield Reaper announced, "the Sevier stake presidency in cooperation with the stake auxiliary boards has planned a stake Union meeting."99 A com­plete schedule of LDS stake priesthood and leadership meetings com­menced once more in September 1945. Such had not happened in quite some time as people from outlying communities simply could not afford to use their rationed gas during the war years for such activities. TROUBLED TIMES: SEVIER COUNTY, 1930-1949 203 At the end of the war, the Produce and Marketing Administra­tion took over the duties which until 20 August 1945 had fallen under the auspices of the old Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA). This new agricultural agency was intended, just like the AAA, to oversee farm loans, crop insurance, and subsidy payments to farm­ers. The federal government did not want to see America's farmers slip back into the quandary they had faced in the 1930s. An August 1945 headline in the Richfield Reaper which certainly caught readers' attention announced "Higher Taxes for Sevier County." Taxation always had been a testy issue in the county, as else­where, and had been especially disliked by many since the 1930s. This particular property tax increase was to fund school expenditures. As Sevier County Clerk J.L. Despain explained, the "Sevier county schools upped the levy from 13.5 to 14.5 mills, [while] the state school levy jumped 1.10 mills." It was, Despain argued, the actions of the Utah State Tax Commission in raising real estate values in Sevier County by 10 percent which really forced this local tax increase, over the protests of the Sevier County Commissioners.100 County residents had to grudgingly face the fact that growth and increased or improved services still had to be paid for. In April 1946, arrangements for "a new airport to be constructed in a new location about 2 miles east of Richfield on the Glenwood road" had been finalized by city officials.101 The new airport was to be constructed through the cooperative involvement of Richfield City, the state of Utah, and the federal government. The location was cho­sen after several months of study. After taking into account "air cur­rents and the proximity of the natural hazards of the surrounding mountains," it was determined that this site was the only feasible one available. The new field reportedly would be "capable of handling not only mainline passenger service, but also heavier transport planes for freight traffic." A sidebar story announced that Western Air Lines had been authorized to stop at Richfield. The Sevier County community was to serve as "an intermediate point on the Salt Lake-Las Vegas-Los Angeles route along with Cedar City and St. George." This new air link, "with fast mail, express and passenger service," would help to mark Richfield as a commercial center and regional hub. The airport was built; however, the greatly expanded Salt Lake City 204 HISTORY OF SEVIER COUNTY Part of the wagon train commemorating Richfield's centennial of settlement in 1964. (Utah State Historical Society) International Airport and the growth of Cedar City and St. George have dimmed the dream of making Richfield a commercial and regional hub for air service. Use has been mainly for local passenger and freight service. In January 1947 the Richfield Chamber of Commerce was orga­nized to promote the area. Later that year, the county's first radio broadcasting station-KSVC-was started. Also in 1947, on 30 October, area Catholics dedicated St. Elizabeth's Catholic Church in Richfield. The structure filled a long-held dream of the region's Catholics to have a formal place of worship. The first services were conducted by the Reverend Leo Halloran, who served until his death in 1950.102 TROUBLED TIMES: SEVIER COUNTY, 1930-1949 205 In 1947, as well, Sevier County began to lay plans to celebrate the Utah Mormon pioneer centennial with the publication of a "Centennial History of Sevier County." A local committee led by Sevier LDS Stake President Irvin L. Warnock and his wife, along with Mr. and Mrs Arthur C. Lundgren and A.C. Willardsen, mayor of Salina, took the lead in organizing the county's celebration. It was contemplated that 2,000 volumes would be printed. Prospective pur­chasers were advised to subscribe for the book early.103 The local camp of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers pledged its support to the county's centennial committee. According to the Richfield Reaper, the volume would be "an invaluable source of fac­tual information." It was to contain the early (pioneer) history of the county; a short history of each town; lists of all war veterans from the Spanish American War through World War II; and a listing of all city and county officers with pictures. The final product, Thru the Years: A Centennial History of Sevier County, edited by Irvin L. Warnock, was published in December 1947. As promised, it was "chock full of inter­esting stories."104 Warnock's career as a historian was far from over. In 1948 the Sevier LDS Stake decided to organize a homecoming to celebrate the stake's seventy-fifth anniversary on 24 May 1949. Stake President and Mrs. Irvin L. Warnock were placed in charge of the event. About 2,000 invitations were sent to former members of the stake, inviting them to participate in the celebration. To commemorate this anniver­sary, the Warnocks co-authored Memories of the Sevier Stake, pub­lished in 1949. Human tragedy struck Richfield, Annabella, and Sevier County twice within two weeks during the spring of 1948. On 4 March, Richfield's mayor, Howard B. Mendenhall, who had been elected one year before, was killed instantly when a train struck his car. Then, on 18 March, Sevier County Attorney D.C. Winget, along with Annabella town councilman Reed Watson, died in a plane crash near Levan in Sanpete County. On 1 April, Norman Holt was sworn in as Richfield's mayor to fill the unexpired term of Mendenhall.105 On a lighter front, in January 1948 Richfield's young women were offered the chance to attend a charm school, "something new for Richfield." The school's operator, Frances Peterson, planned to 206 HISTORY OF SEVIER COUNTY The Western Gypsum Company at Sigurd. (Utah State Historical Society) offer instruction in "the many phases of charm that are so necessary in each girl's life." Mrs. Peterson would also offer the girls direction in poise, posture, how to apply make-up, the care of the skin, and sev­eral other feminine concerns. According to the instructor, charm will help young women in the business world as well as in "regular life."106 Such an addition to the local scene speaks loudly about the rapidly changing world of Sevier C o u n t y and about the evolving roles of women in the United States. Other items in the Reaper reflected the t u m u l t u o u s postwar world. In May 1948 Deseret News correspondent Vivian Meik spoke to the people of Richfield about the dangers of communism. Meik told listeners that "the international communistic movement was con­tinuing and unrelenting in its drive to force capitalism into decay."107 Soviet communism came to be viewed with trepidation across much of the United States during the next decade, and Meik likely did much to escalate this worry among Sevier County's residents. Industrial expansion was taking place throughout Sevier County during the postwar years. The Western Gypsum Company opened a TROUBLED TIMES: SEVIER COUNTY, 1930-1949 207 new facility at Sigurd in 1948. The plant, said to be "one of the most modern and one of the largest integrated plants of its kind in the country," represented the county's largest industrial enterprise to date. The gypsum company promised to provide "a steady pay roll in the future." Speculation suggested that nearly five hundred tons of rock per day would be removed from the Sigurd site.108 The Sigurd deposit of gypsum was one of the world's finest, and the word about Sevier County's abundant natural resources was get­ting out. The following month, United States Gypsum Company moved to Sigurd to also mine and package the chalklike mineral used for plaster of paris and plaster board. Home building was soaring in post-World War II America as suburbs began to spring up all over the nation, making plaster (with its required gypsum component) in great demand. The editor of the Richfield Reaper along with the citi­zens of Sigurd and Sevier County realized quickly that with two com­peting plaster companies at Sigurd, "the economy of Sevier valley should be greatly improved."109 County voters displayed their displeasure in part with Truman's and the Democrats' policy of government managing the economy during peacetime. In 1948, county voters rejected President Truman's bid for election. The county tally for Truman was 1,943 as contrasted with 2,791 votes for Republican nominee Thomas Dewey; Utahns in 1948 voted 149,151 for Truman, while Dewey received 124,402 votes. By 1949 Sevier County displayed a sound economy and was opti­mistic about future industrial growth. New industries, such as Sigurd's gypsum mines and plaster-manufacturing concerns, gave Sevier County a sense of vibrancy. The people of the county had faced economic calamity as well as human tragedy during years of depression and war. Yet, after all of the trials, the residents of Sevier County, like most of their fellow Utahns and other Americans, looked hopefully toward the future. ENDNOTES 1. Richfield Reaper, 4 December 1930, 1. 2. Richfield Reaper, 11 December 1930,1. 3. Charles S. Peterson, Utah: A History (New York: W.W. Norton 8c Company, 1977), 149. 208 HISTORY OF SEVIER COUNTY 4. Sevier County Treasurer, Tax Sale Records, microfilm no. 014031, Utah State Archives. 5. Ibid. 6. Ibid., microfilm no. 014034. 7. William Bliss Daniels, interview, 21, typescript, LDS Archives. 8. Richfield Reaper, 2 October 1930, 2. 9. Dean L. May, Utah: A People's History, (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1987), 173. 10. Peterson, Utah, 175. 11. Richfield Reaper, 12 October 1930, 8. 12. Wilford Murdock and Mildred Murdock, Monroe, Utah: Its First One Hundred Years (Monroe: Monroe Centennial Committe, 1964), 37. 13. Liela Oldroyd, interview by David Oldroyd, 24 March 1988, copy at Richfield City Library. 14. Richfield Reaper, 12 October 1930, 8. 15. Ibid. 16. Dan E. lones, "Utah Politics, 1926-1932" (Ph.D. diss., University of Utah, 1968), 305, 306. 17. Ibid., 309. 18. "Biennial Report of the Secretary of State," Public Documents, 1936 3 vols. (Salt Lake City: State of Utah, 1936), 3:30, copy at the Utah State Historical Society. 19. Richfield Reaper, 25 December 1930, 1. 20. See Minute Book A, Sevier County Clerk's Office, 1 December 1930, 543, Utah State Archives. 21. Alten Christensen, interview by Alan Thompson, 5 lanuary 1988, copy at Richfield City Library. 22. Mike Brown, "The Automobile Industry in Sevier County," 4, paper, 1988, copy at Richfield City Library. 23. William Manchester, The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932-1972, 2 vols. (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1973), 1:104. 24. Richfield Reaper, 31 August 1933, 1. 25. Kenneth W. Baldridge, "Nine Years of Achievement: The Civilian Conservation Corps in Utah" (Ph.D. diss., Brigham Young University, 1971), 23, 81. 26. Ibid., 47. 27. Richfield Reaper 5 October 1933, 1; 12 October 1933, 1. 28. Oldroyd, interview, 3. TROUBLED TIMES: SEVIER COUNTY, 1930-1949 209 29. Richfield Reaper, 15 October 1936, 6. 30. Richfield Reaper, 19 October 1933, 1. 31. Richfield Reaper, 26 October 1933, 1. 32.Ibid. 33. Manchester, The Glory and the Dream, 1:102-3. 34. Richfield Reaper, 28 December 1933, 1, 6. 35. Richfield Reaper, 5 April 1934, 1. 36. Richfield Reaper, 6 November 1933, 6. 37. Richfield Reaper, 7 December 1933, 1. 38. Ibid.; and 14 December 1933, 1. 39. Sevier County Ordinance Register, 13 May 1932, 63; and 22 luly 1932,66. 40. Richfield Reaper, 9 November 1933, 1. 41. Richfield Reaper, 18 January 1934, 1. 42.Ibid. 43. Ibid. 44. Richfield Reaper, 16 November 1933. 45. Richfield Reaper, 23 November 1933, 1. 46. Ibid. 47. Richfield Reaper, 1 March 1934, 1. 48. Quoted in Vicky Burgess-Olson, Sister Saints (Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1978), 408. 49. Richfield Reaper, 29 November 1936. 50. Richfield Reaper, 1 March 1934. 51. D.C. Houston, and Rey M. Hill, Health Conditions and Facilities in Utah, 1936 (Salt Lake City: Utah State Planning Board, 1936), 89. 52. Pearl F. Jacobson, compiler and editor, et al., Golden Sheaves from a Rich Field: A Centennial History of Richfield, Utah (Richfield, Utah: Richfield Reaper Publishing Company, 1964), 115, 120; Houston and Hill, Health Conditions and Facilities in Utah, 99. This study indicates that in 1930 there were seven physicians in the county. Those seven physicians provided med­ical care to 11,199 residents. Daggett County had no physicians and Wayne, Rich, and Grand counties had one physician each. In 1935 the county had six dentists, one of the higher number of dentists in the rural counties in the state. 53. Statistical Summary of Expenditures and Accomplishments, Utah Emergency Relief Program (Salt Lake City: Utah State Advisory Committee on Public Welfare and Emergency Relief, 1936), 6, copy at Utah State Historical Society. 210 HISTORY OF SEVIER COUNTY 54. Ibid., 8. The highest per capita was Tooele County, which received $92.33; the lowest was Box Elder County, which received $37.20 per indi­vidual. Of all the counties, Tooele experienced the most severe drought in Utah during this period. 55. Max R. Keetch, comp., Sevier River Basin Floods, 1852-1967 (Salt Lake City: United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Soil Conservation Service, 1971), 80, copy at Utah State Historical Society Library. 56. Ibid., 81. 57. Ibid., 80-81,87-88. 58. Richfield Reaper, 23 October 1938, 1. 59. Ibid. 60.Ibid. 61. Ibid. 62. Ibid., 4. 63. Ibid., 3-4; O.R. McKinlay, interview by Dave Brown, 6 lanuary 1988; Sylvester, "Business History of Richfield, Utah," 247. 64. "Report of the Secretary of State," Public Documents, 1938, 3:33; "Report of the Secretary of State," Public Documents, 1950 3: 26; copies at Utah State Historical Society. 65. See Richfield Reaper, 3 August 1939; and Butler and Marsell, "Developing a State Water Plan," 51. 66. Butler and Marsell, "Developing a State Water Plan," 55. 67. Richfield Reaper, 31 August 1939, 6. 68. Richfield Reaper, 7 September 1939, 6. 69. Betty Olson Erickson, interview by Ryan L. Stone, 27 March 1988, Venice , Utah, 1, copy at Richfield City Library. 70. Richfield Reaper, 11 December 1941, 1. 71. Ibid.; and 25 December 1941, 8. By December 1941 Larsen's family was living in Logan, so no follow-up information was ever published in the Reaper. In Irvin L. Warnock, compiler and editor, Thru the Years: Sevier County Centennial History (Springville, Utah: Art City Publishing Co., 1947), 241, Larsen is listed as killed in action. 72. Eric Gustive Erickson, interview by Ryan L. Stone, 27 March 1988, 2, copy at Richfield City Library. 73. Ibid., 5; regarding the invasion of Tulagi, see Thomas B. Allen and Norman Polmar, Code-Name Downfall: The Secret Plan to Invade Japan and Why Truman Dropped the Bomb (New York: Simon 8c Schuster, 1995), 51-52. TROUBLED TIMES: SEVIER COUNTY, 1930-1949 211 74. Eric Erickson, interview, 5-6. 75. Betty Erickson, interview, 14-15. 76. Richfield Reaper, 10 April 1942, 1; Warnock, Thru the Years, 58. 77. Betty Erickson, interview, 17. 78. leffery Nielson, "World War II Comes to Rural Utah," 2, paper, 16 lanuary 1989, copy at Richfield City Library. 79. Ibid., 3. 80. Richfield Reaper, 14 June 1945, 5. 81. Allen and Polmar, Code-Name Downfall, 110. 82. Richfield Reaper, 17 lune 1943, 1. 83. Ibid., 6. 84. Richfield Reaper, 24 June 1943, 1. 85. Richfield Reaper, 14 lune 1945, 5. 86. Richfield Reaper, 24 December 1942, 1. 87. Richfield Reaper, 8 April 1943, 1; 15 April 1943, 1. 88. Allan Kent Powell, Splinters of a Nation: German Prisoners of War in Utah (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1989), 223-39. 89. Ibid., 223-24. 90. Ibid., 2. 91. Richfield Reaper, 16 August 1945, 1. 92. Warnock, Thru the Years, 58. 93. The final column of "Fightin' Talk" had appeared in the Richfield Reaper on 9 August 1945. 94. Richfield Reaper, 6 September 1945, 2. 95.Ibid. 96. Richfield Reaper, 14 luly 1945, 1. 97. See Warnock, Thru the Years, 401; lacobson, Golden Sheaves, 278; Richfield Reaper, 19 February 1948, 11. 98. "Fifth Biennial Report of the Utah State Aeronautics Commission, 1945-1946," in State of Utah Public Documents, 1944-1946, Part 3, 12, and "Seventh Biennial Report of the Utah State Aeronautics Commission, 1949-1950," in State of Utah Public Documents, 1948-1950, Part 1, 21, Utah State Historical Society. 99. Richfield Reaper, 20 September 1945, 7. 100. Richfield Reaper, 13 September 1945, 1. 101. Richfield Reaper, 4 April 1946. 1. 102. Jacobson, Golden Sheaves, 73. 103. Richfield Reaper, 16 lanuary 1947, 1. 212 HISTORY OF SEVIER COUNTY 104. Richfield Reaper, 25 December 1947, 1. 105. Richfield Reaper, 11 March 1948, 1; 18 March 1948, 1; 1 April 1948, 1. 106. Richfield Reaper, 28 lanuary 1948, 7. 107. Richfield Reaper, 13 May 1948, 1. 108. Richfield Reaper, 15 April 1948, 1. 109. Richfield Reaper, 6 May 1948, 1.